122715 - Purple Off
12:39 AT: Aaisha lead Lorrea down the hallways, heading toward the tower where her room was. She left her at the bottom of the stairs, running up and returning quickly with clothes folded in her arms and nodded for Lorrea to follow before continuing down the halls. 12:40 AT: "I've never had to use the bathing area before..." 12:40 AT: Lorrea keeps following, a marked bounce in her step. She seemed a bit antsy at being left, but that faded quickly enough. "Because of alll of the waterr?" 12:44 AT: "Yes." she looks back with a raised eyebrow, "With all the sea water I didn't really need to use the baths." 12:45 AT: "But now instead you're swimming in bllllood." 12:47 AT: She sighs, opening a door and entering a marble carved room. 12:48 AT: "Yes and my sylladex is out of sorts." 12:48 AT: "Because of Scarrllet." 12:53 AT: "Mm, it's a tradition among Companions apparently. I'm assuming this is normal, for her." 12:54 AT: "Just llike trrying to killl me was norrmall, forr herr. I don't think things being norrmall forr herr is a verry good defense!" Lorrea's tone is rather too bright, to be saying that sort of thing. 12:55 AT: "No," she sighs, "She's still working in terms of her own culture. We've just started making a middleground..." 12:55 AT: She drops her clothes on a bench near a small bowl in the ground. 12:56 AT: "If you say so! I stilll don't llike herr." 12:58 AT: "I don't expect you to," she finds the knobs, hitting a switch to plug the tub and water starts pouring in. 12:58 AT: "Do you want any of this?" 12:59 AT: "Any of what?" 12:59 AT: "That's not a no," 01:00 AT: "The blood." 01:00 AT: "Oh. Wellllllllll if you're offerrrrrrrrrrrring," 01:02 AT: Lorrea lightly bites her lip. Lorrea's lip, not Aaisha's. Obviously. 01:05 AT: Aaisha holds out her arm, purple blood on. "Why would I ask if I wasn't offering?" 01:08 AT: Lorrea scoots forwards, impulsively. And then tries to ignore her face gaining a greenish tint as she licks some of the blood off of Aaisha's arm. Unless Aaisha plans on stopping her. 01:12 AT: She doesn't stop her, and let's Lorrea take the blood pulling her arm back when she was done. The tub still filling, Aaisha pulled out soup from a locked box on the wall. 01:15 AT: Lorrea hovers a short distance away. "So, that whollle thing was sorrrt of grrrreat," 01:18 AT: "What?" she seems a little distracted as she walks back to the tub, "Well which part? The beating up the highblood or when I was about to get crushed?" 01:19 AT: "The parrrt wherrre they died, and you didn't." 01:19 AT: "I was gonna killlll them anyways." 01:23 AT: "Pfft, yea that was nice. It was nice to feel like I wasn't actually helpless either." 01:23 AT: "I'm not sure any of us could've taken him down, at least physically." 01:25 AT: "I bet I coulld have." 01:25 AT: "He wasn't that much talllerr than me." 01:27 AT: "Lorrea he was huge," she leans down near the tub and feels the water, "Did you want me to redo your hair?" 01:28 AT: "Oh, um. Surre." 01:28 AT: "It sorrrt of. Just stopped being llike that." 01:30 AT: "Mmm, I can't imagine why," she gives Lorrea a look before standing up and unclasping her dress. 01:31 AT: "My hairrr does not recognize yourrr authorrrity." Lorrea looks at the floor, over to the side. 01:34 AT: "Or maybe it just got undone by someone else?" The dress drops to the floor, quick sounds of metal being put down before there's a splash and Aaisha's in the tub. 01:35 AT: "That's crrrrazy talllk, Aaisha." 01:35 AT: "Why woulllld someone do that?" 01:41 AT: "Mmmm, I don't know you and Ari seemed pretty close tonight." 01:43 AT: "Welll, yes??" 01:43 AT: "Arrri is grrreat." 01:45 AT: "Well yes, I can agree with you there," she reaches up and starts unbraiding her own hair, "Did you wander off with them at some point?" 01:46 AT: "... What do you mean by wanderrrrrr off," 01:46 AT: "We stepped out forrrr a whilllle because of some of the otherrrrrr guests??" 01:46 AT: "I mean like how Nyarla and I went off to play chess." 01:46 AT: "... You pllllay chess?" 01:47 AT: "With him?" 01:47 AT: "You won, right?" 01:48 AT: "I do play chess, and if you count backing him into a stalemate as winning I won once." 01:48 AT: "He won outright the first time, the third game he stalemated me." 01:48 AT: "... I'lll just have to beat him again, then. To make up forr it." 01:51 AT: "Heh," she smiles as she shakes her hair out, the water swirling with purple, "Well I don't think I minded losing, just this once." 01:51 AT: "... Was llosing reallly llosing." 01:53 AT: "Nooot this time," she grins wide as she dunks down, wetting her hair. 01:53 AT: "... I'm realllly not surrprrrrrised," 01:54 AT: Aaisha chuckles pleased, "I would consider it one of the highlights of my night." 01:55 AT: "Anything involllving him makes me skepticalll that it coullld be a highllllight, but I digrrress." 01:56 AT: "Well he also isn't your matesprit," she says pointedly, grabbing the soap and starting to scrub herself clean, "I would think you and Ari might be leaning that way? Mm?" 01:57 AT: "That's sorrrrrrrrt of a thing," 01:59 AT: "Oooh~" she leans on the edge of the tub for a moment, "Is it really?" 02:00 AT: "Yes??" 02:00 AT: Lorrea is looking anywhere but at Aaisha. Maybe that will make the greenness less obvious. 02:03 AT: "Mmmm," her attention is focused on Lorrea now, "Soo you like Ari?" 02:03 AT: "Soo you lllike Nyarrllla?" 02:04 AT: "Is that a yes?" 02:04 AT: "I don't know, is it?" 02:04 AT: "I'm taking it as one." 02:04 AT: "I mean, alllllrrrright," 02:06 AT: "Hehe," she goes back to scrubbing herself down after the chuckle, satisfied with the answer. 02:08 AT: "Why," 02:09 AT: "I mean. Outside of the obvious," 02:12 AT: "I can't worry about who my moirail might be courting?" 02:13 AT: "Wellll you can," 02:16 AT: "Well then I'll bug you about your quadrants every now and again heh." 02:18 AT: Lorrea sits on the floor. "That's okay," 02:19 AT: Lorrea sighs, a bit wistfully. 02:22 AT: "You okay?" Aaisha puts down the soap, dunking herself again to get the rest of the purpled suds off. 02:24 AT: "Yeah, I'm grrrreat." 02:30 AT: "Mmm," she grabs the shampoo eyes narrowing, "...I hope they're helping... We need her out of Jack's grasp.." The last part is muttered to herself. 03:04 AT: Lorrea frowns, but doesn't say anything. "I think everrrything is going to be okay," 03:08 AT: "Mmm, it seems we either need to block Jack's Code access, or get acccess ourselves... When we won't get murdered by him." 03:08 AT: "And all these bargains he's making..." 03:12 AT: "... We can't bllock it." 03:16 AT: Aaisha growls, lips pulled back in a snarl briefly before she's dunking down again to wash our her hair. When she comes back up, her expression is back to normal. "Then what are we supposed to do?" 03:16 AT: "Jack can do whatever he wants and we can't stop him." 03:17 AT: "... We wait, forr now." 03:17 AT: "And then we tearrr him to pieces." 03:21 AT: "And let him play with us however he wants?" her voice is hard, only slightly trembling. 03:22 AT: "... No." 03:22 AT: "Of courrrrse not." 03:22 AT: "I have a plllan, Aaisha." 03:32 AT: She pulls herself out of the water, frowning. "How well do you expect it to work?" 03:32 AT: "I expect it to worrk welll enough." 03:35 AT: "...I wish there wasn't so much spying. There's to much of an advantage over us..." her voice is quiet as she grabs a towel from another locked cupboard and started patting herself dry. 03:46 AT: "... Yes. Perrhaps that's something that we can do something about." 03:49 AT: "Mm, I'm not sure how unless we learn how to code better than Jack and block everyone," her voice is just a touch bitter as she rubs her hair before throwing the towel on the bench and beginning to dress. 03:53 AT: "... Wellll, if we just worrk arround it?" 03:58 AT: "How can we work around it? Create code words that they'll know right away? Be subtle and hope our players can pick up on it??" As she talks her voice grows frustrated, angry, pulling on a loose white blouse to match her dark slacks. 04:00 AT: "... Yes." 04:02 AT: She laughs bitterly, turning to face Lorrea hands on her hips. "I'm dressed now so you can look." 04:05 AT: Lorrea does. Her tone is shifting to the frustrating. "Therre's no EASY sollution to this, but the point is that we have to pllay allong forr now, untill we can FRREE ourrsellves frrom it." 04:08 AT: "Yes and in the meantime we all get played for chumps," tone bitter, she picks up Nyarla's coat laying on the bench and pulls it on. 04:08 AT: "... We can pllay allong without being pllayed." 04:08 AT: "Each of us are running around with our own plan, nobody can work together except on our own teams." 04:08 AT: "How." 04:10 AT: "By worrking togetherr, Aaisha. By pllaying to ourr strrengths, and prroving that we're not going to be pllayed against each otherr llike wrriggllers." 04:10 AT: "Orrganization." 04:13 AT: "And you know what we don't have Lorrea? Organization. Because we can't COMMUNICATE," there's no hint of control left in her voice and her frustration is clearly coming through, "Everyone is going to try to be manipulating EVERYONE. Nyarla, you, me and anybody with half a brain and a need for power." 04:13 AT: "At LEAST Ramira is gone but if Jack is using Cara, then why the FUCK wouldn't he be using her?" 04:15 AT: "... I don't need powerr. I just want everryone to be okay." 04:18 AT: "I know you don't need power, I know," her voice goes quiet and she rubs her face, "I'm just, I don't know if anyone else in our group wants it. And I can't stop wanting it." She sighs and sits down on the bench. 04:19 AT: "... I don't know whether to call it a complex but it means so much..." 04:22 AT: Lorrea sighs. "I can trry to keep everryone in lline. Pllease wait to go forr the crrown prroperr, it's- Jack goes afterr lleaderrs, Aaisha." 04:23 AT: "I'm not llosing you to him, too." 04:29 AT: "I can't wait to go for the crown proper, it's already on my head," her voice is trembling, "I'm just wondering if it should be. As far as I know Jack would happily take my head anyway, he just doesn't because I amuse him I'm assuming." 04:32 AT: "... Does it have to be? Did you take it up, yourrsellf? If this is something that you're going to do, I'lll supporrt you as much as I can." 04:32 AT: "It's yourr choice, Aaisha. Telll me what you want to do." 04:42 AT: She looks up, brows furrowed and unshed tears glistening in her eyes, "I've always wanted to take it up myself. I've just been too weak. I didn't think you'd like me trying for the crown." 04:54 AT: "... You're not too weak, but no one coulld llead with allll of this allone." 04:54 AT: "If you want it, I'lllll hellp you." 05:02 AT: "I don't expect to lead with all of this alone," she leans back, "I don't even expect everyone to follow me there's so much squabbling... I didn't think...." She takes a deep breath, "I really didn't think you'd like it if I did anything leadery. At all." 05:05 AT: "... I can hellp them follllow you. You're alllowed to trrry, but... it's risky." 05:05 AT: "I won't holld you back." 05:08 AT: She rubs her arms, looking at the jadeblood hesitantly, "...You won't be mad?" 05:10 AT: "... I'lll onlly be mad if you expect my unconditionall lloyallty on account of being Emprress, orr expecting me to trreat you any differrrrentlly when it's just us." 05:13 AT: "Pffhehe, why would I expect my moirail to treat me any differently? I expect my moirail to knock sense into me when I need it." There's a small smile on her face, "I'd rather you be loyal because of who I am, not because of the title. I always hated that." 05:32 AT: "Then we shoulldn't have a prrobllem." 05:36 AT: "...Okay," she grabs the boots next to the bench, quickly putting them on before standing up. She hesitates for a moment, glancing at Lorrea before taking a small step forward holding a hand out, "...Can I have a hug now?" 05:37 AT: "Of courrrrrse?" 05:42 AT: Aaisha walks forward, crouching down and pulling Lorrea into a hug shoulders shaking. "Thanks." 05:43 AT: Lorrea hugs Aaisha as tightly as she can. "Moirraills firrst." 05:49 AT: She burries her nose in Lorrea's neck, nodding and if Lorrea's paying attention she might feel the tears landing on her skin. 05:53 AT: "... It may be harrrd to bellieve, but I'm going to fix everrything." Lorrea brushes a hand through Aaisha's hair, rather carefully. 05:59 AT: "You're right," she laughs quietly, "That is hard to believe, even if you get help... I'm not sure we can fix it anymore. I don't think we've been able to fix anything since Alternia got destroyed." She leans into the touch, shoulders still trembling but relaxing slightly. 06:00 AT: "... That isn't going to stop me, no matterrr what happens." 06:05 AT: Aaisha pulls back, just enough to look at Lorrea, There's tear tracks on her face, and she's not trying to hide how tired and upset she actually is anymore. "I think we... we shouldn't try fixing it in terms of getting back what we lost. I don't think we can anymore. Ha, I don't know what to call it... Mend? Mend it?" 06:15 AT: "... I know. But I'm going to make things right." Lorrea isn't crying, in the slightest, and she seems entirely certain of herself. 06:15 AT: "We can't make things lllike how they werrre, but we can make them betterrrr." 06:18 AT: She quiet, searching Lorrea's face before her lip trembles and she nods, "Okay..." 06:19 AT: "...And the Empress doesn't haven't to kill the Heiress anymore?" her voice is very quiet when she says it. 06:21 AT: "... Killlling someone forrr theirr bllood is just as bad as expecting someone to llive by theirr bllood." 06:21 AT: "Wait forr them to give us a reason forrr it, if necessarrry?" 06:24 AT: "Yea, yea I can do that... Hehe I'm not sure I'd be able to be around them too much," she smiles, "Old ideals die hard." 06:25 AT: "...And fuchsias are really territorial." 06:25 AT: "I.. think?" 06:26 AT: "Then I'lll deall with them, instead." 06:30 AT: "Okay," she leans foward and hugs Lorrea again rellaxing completely against her though she held her own weight. "Thank you Lorrea.. so much.." 06:43 AT: "You're absollllutellly wellcome. Pllease don't crrush me." 06:47 AT: "Pfft, I would never crush you," she pulls back, giving Lorrea a wry smile and straightening up before wiping her eyes. 06:52 AT: "Wellll, that's a relllief. I was worrrried, afterrr what happened to Sannta." Lorrea grins. She's obviously insincere. 06:52 AT: Aaisha rolls her eyes, "As nice as that felt both you and I know that was Ari's power. Not mine." 06:53 AT: "Yes." 06:55 AT: "So I think you're safe," she grabs everything on the bench and starts walking toward the door, "I'm going to stop by the tower, did you want to come with me or head back to the ball?" 06:56 AT: "Do you need me with you, orr keeping yourr guests in lline?" 06:58 AT: "I wouldn't mind the company if you wanted to come," she opens the door, holding it open for Lorrea, "I'm sure my guests are all behaving themselves..." 06:59 AT: "Welll, then I'lll tag allong." Lorrea scoots through the door, grinning at Aaisha. 07:01 AT: Aaisha smiles and starts leading Lorrea down the hallway, "Well then I'll enjoy your company then." 07:27 AT: The rest of her ball getup in her arms, Aaisha heads down the hallway and back to the tower entrance. "Did you want to come up with me? I just need to grab a bag... which I'll probably have Eribus carry in his sylladex.." 07:37 AT: "Oh, errr. It shoullld harrdllly take llong?" 07:41 AT: "It shouldn't no, I'll be quick," after saying that she quickly heads up the stairs gone for a few moments before she comes rushing back incredibly pleased and Lorrea's cape rushed wrapped around her neck. 07:42 AT: "I forgot I took it out, ohgosh I'm so glad," she gently pulls it up over her chin grinning. 07:46 AT: "Oh! Nice." Lorrea grins. 07:46 AT: "Scarrllet can't beat my cape." 07:48 AT: "Hehe, no and most of the stuff I took out wanting to organize it... Except the gifts," her face falls at that but she sighs and stands next to Lorrea. "We need to get it fixed, I can't carry around a bag forever... Back to the party?" 07:49 AT: "Allrright!" 07:50 AT: She heads back down the hall, leading Lorrea back to the entrane and back to the ballroom.